The present invention relates to image display apparatus and, more particularly, to a head- or face-mounted image display apparatus that can be retained on the observer""s head or face.
In recent years, image display apparatus, particularly head- or face-mounted image display apparatus, have been developed actively for the purpose of enabling the user to enjoy a wide-screen image personally.
There has heretofore been known a head-mounted image display apparatus in which an image displayed on an image display device, e.g. a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a CRT, is once formed in the air by a relay optical system, and then the image is led to an observer""s eyeball through an ocular optical system including a semitransparent mirror and a concave mirror [for example, see Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication Numbers (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cJP(A)xe2x80x9d) 3-39925 and 7-151993]. There has also been known a head-mounted image display apparatus in which an image displayed on an image display device is once formed in the air by an optical system including a semitransparent mirror and a concave mirror, and then the image is led to an observer""s eyeball through an ordinary ocular optical system [see Published Japanese Translation of PCT International Publication No. 10-504115].
Incidentally, the above-described image display apparatus, which has an optical system wherein a first image is formed by using a relay optical system and the first image is led to an observer""s eyeball through an ocular optical system including a semitransparent mirror and a concave mirror, is superior to image display apparatus having no relay optical system in the following points:
{circle around (1)} Aberrations produced in the ocular optical system can be corrected by the relay optical system.
{circle around (2)} An image of a small LCD is formed as an enlarged image on an intermediate image plane by the relay optical system. This is equivalent to using a large LCD panel in combination with an ocular optical system including a semitransparent mirror and a concave mirror. Thus, a wide viewing field angle can be obtained even if a small LCD is used. To attain a wide viewing field angle with an image display apparatus using only an ocular optical system including a semitransparent mirror and a concave mirror, without using a relay optical system, it is necessary to shorten the focal length of the concave mirror to thereby increase the magnification. However, if the power of the concave mirror is made excessively strong, aberrations are aggravated.
Incidentally, JP(A) 7-333551 and 8-234137 propose a technique whereby the optical system of an image display apparatus can be made compact in size and light in weight while maintaining high optical performance (brightness, field angle, resolution, etc.) by using a decentered optical system.
In view of the above-described circumstances of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an image display apparatus including a relay optical system that forms an intermediate image of an image display device, and an ocular optical system having a semitransparent mirror and a concave mirror, wherein a decentered optical system is used in the relay optical system to fold an optical path, thereby making the optical system even more compact, and further the intermediate image magnifying power of the relay optical system is increased to thereby realize a wide field angle while keeping the power of the concave mirror part of the ocular optical system at a small value.
To attain the above-described object, the present invention provides an image display apparatus having an image display device and a viewing optical system that leads an image formed by the image display device to the position of an observer""s eyeball.
The viewing optical system has at least the following three surfaces. That is, the viewing optical system has an image source-side reflecting surface having a decentered curved surface configuration that gives a power to a light beam emitted from the image display device when the light beam is reflected by the decentered curved surface. The image source-side reflecting surface also has a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration that corrects decentration aberrations produced by reflection at the decentered curved surface. The viewing optical system further has a semitransparent reflecting surface with half-mirror coating that transmits or reflects the light beam reflected from the image source-side reflecting surface, and a concave reflecting surface that forms a folded optical path between the concave reflecting surface and the semitransparent reflecting surface. The concave reflecting surface has a concave surface directed toward the semitransparent reflecting surface. An enlarged intermediate image of the image displayed on the image display device is formed between the image source-side reflecting surface and the semitransparent reflecting surface.
In this case, the viewing optical system may have at least two surfaces, which are a first surface and a second surface that face each other across a medium having a refractive index larger than 1. The first surface is an entrance surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the medium. The second surface serves as the image source-side reflecting surface. The first and second surfaces are placed between the intermediate image and the image display device.
The viewing optical system may have a third surface that faces the first and second surfaces across the medium whose refractive index is larger than 1. The third surface is formed from at least a reflecting surface having a rotationally asymmetric curved surface configuration that gives a power to a light beam when reflecting it and corrects decentration aberrations. Moreover, the third surface is placed in an optical path between the first surface and the semitransparent reflecting surface.
The reasons for adopting the above-described arrangements in the present invention, together with the functions thereof, will be described below.
An image display apparatus according to the present invention has an image display device and a viewing optical system that leads an image formed by the image display device to the position of an observer""s eyeball. The viewing optical system has at least the following three surfaces. That is, the viewing optical system has an image source-side reflecting surface having a decentered curved surface configuration that gives a power to a light beam emitted from the image display device when the light beam is reflected by the decentered curved surface. The image source-side reflecting surface also has a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration that corrects decentration aberrations produced by reflection at the decentered curved surface. The viewing optical system further has a semitransparent reflecting surface with half-mirror coating that transmits or reflects the light beam reflected by the image source-side reflecting surface, and a concave reflecting surface that forms a folded optical path between the concave reflecting surface and the semitransparent reflecting surface. The concave reflecting surface has a concave surface directed toward the semitransparent reflecting surface. The viewing optical system forms an enlarged intermediate image of the image of the image display device between the image source-side reflecting surface and the semitransparent reflecting surface. Thus, a part of the viewing optical system that acts as a relay optical system has at least the image source-side reflecting surface. Therefore, the optical path can be folded, and the relay optical system can be made more compact than the conventional relay optical system using an axially symmetric optical system. Furthermore, because the relay optical system enlarges the intermediate image while correcting aberrations, it is possible to realize a wide field angle while keeping the power of the concave reflecting surface at a small value. The concave reflecting surface forms an ocular optical system in combination with the semitransparent reflecting surface. In addition, because the image source-side reflecting surface, which is included in the relay optical system, has a decentered curved surface configuration and also a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration that corrects decentration aberrations produced by reflection at the decentered curved surface, aberration correction can be satisfactorily performed despite the use of a decentered optical system in the relay optical system.
In one form of the present invention, the relay optical system has at least two surfaces, which are a first surface and a second surface that face each other across a medium having a refractive index larger than 1. The first surface is an entrance surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the medium. The second surface serves as the image source-side reflecting surface. The first and second surfaces are placed between the intermediate image and the image display device. With this arrangement, the relay optical system can be made even more compact and corrected for aberrations even more reliably.
The following is a description of the merit of forming the relay optical system from such a decentered optical system, particularly an internally reflecting decentered prism.
A refracting optical element such as a lens is provided with a power by giving a curvature to an interface surface thereof. Accordingly, when rays are refracted at the interface surface of the lens, chromatic aberration unavoidably occurs according to chromatic dispersion characteristics of the refracting optical element. Consequently, the common practice is to add another refracting optical element for the purpose of correcting the chromatic aberration.
Meanwhile, a reflecting optical element such as a mirror or a prism produces no chromatic aberration in theory even when a reflecting surface thereof is provided with a power, and need not add another optical element only for the purpose of correcting chromatic aberration. Accordingly, an optical system using a reflecting optical element allows the number of constituent optical elements to be reduced from the viewpoint of chromatic aberration correction in comparison to an optical system using a refracting optical element.
At the same time, a reflecting optical system using a reflecting optical element allows the optical system itself to be compact in size in comparison to a refracting optical system because the optical path is folded in the reflecting optical system.
Reflecting surfaces require a high degree of accuracy for assembly and adjustment because they have high sensitivity to decentration errors in comparison to refracting surfaces. However, among reflecting optical elements, prisms, in which the positional relationship between surfaces is fixed, only need to control decentration as a single unit of prism and do not need high assembly accuracy and a large number of man-hours for adjustment as are needed for other reflecting optical elements.
Furthermore, a prism has an entrance surface and an exit surface, which are refracting surfaces, and a reflecting surface. Therefore, the degree of freedom for aberration correction is high in comparison to a mirror, which has only a reflecting surface. In particular, if the prism reflecting surface is assigned the greater part of the desired power to thereby reduce the powers of the entrance and exit surfaces, which are refracting surfaces, it is possible to reduce chromatic aberration to a very small quantity in comparison to refracting optical elements such as lenses while maintaining the degree of freedom for aberration correction at a high level in comparison to mirrors. Furthermore, the inside of a prism is filled with a transparent medium having a refractive index higher than that of air. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a longer optical path length than in the case of air. Accordingly, the use of a prism makes it possible to obtain an optical system that is thinner and more compact than those formed from lenses, mirrors and so forth, which are placed in the air.
In addition, a viewing optical system is required to exhibit favorable image-forming performance as far as the peripheral portions of the image field, not to mention the performance required for the center of the image field. Therefore, in the present invention, a single prism is used in a relay optical system that forms a viewing optical system as stated above. The prism includes at least a first surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the prism, and a second surface that reflects the light beam entering through the first surface. At least the reflecting surface has a rotationally asymmetric curved surface configuration that gives an optical power to a light beam and that corrects decentration aberrations, thereby enabling not only axial aberrations but also off-axis aberrations to be favorably corrected.
Adopting the above-described basic arrangement makes it possible to obtain a compact image display apparatus that has a smaller number of constituent optical elements than in the case of an optical system using a refracting optical system or a rotationally symmetric relay optical system and exhibits favorable performance throughout the image field, from the center to the periphery thereof.
When a light ray that passes through the center of the pupil and reaches the center of the display surface of the image display device is defined as an axial principal ray, it is desirable that at least one reflecting surface of the prism should be decentered with respect to the axial principal ray. If at least one reflecting surface is not decentered with respect to the axial principal ray, the axial principal ray travels along the same optical path when incident on and reflected from the reflecting surface, and thus the axial principal ray is intercepted in the optical system undesirably. As a result, an image is formed from only a light beam whose central portion is shaded. Consequently, the center of the image is unfavorably dark, or no image is formed in the center of the image field.
It is also possible to decenter a reflecting surface with a power with respect to the axial principal ray.
In the present invention, the image source-side reflecting surface, which forms the relay optical system, has a rotationally asymmetric curved surface configuration that gives an optical power to a light beam and that corrects decentration aberrations, as stated above. Such a surface configuration is favorable from the viewpoint of correcting decentration aberrations. The reason for this will be described below in detail.
First of all, a coordinate system used in the following description and rotationally asymmetric surfaces will be described.
An optical axis defined by a straight line along which the axial principal ray travels until it intersects the first surface of the optical system is defined as a Z-axis. An axis perpendicularly intersecting the Z-axis in the decentration plane of each surface constituting the optical system is defined as a Y-axis. An axis perpendicularly intersecting the optical axis and also perpendicularly intersecting the Y-axis is defined as an X-axis. Ray tracing will be described by backward ray tracing in which rays are traced from the pupil toward the image display device, as stated above.
In general, a spherical lens system comprising only a spherical lens is arranged such that aberrations produced by spherical surfaces, such as spherical aberration, coma and curvature of field, are corrected with some surfaces by canceling the aberrations with each other, thereby reducing aberrations as a whole.
On the other hand, rotationally symmetric aspherical surfaces and the like are used to correct aberrations favorably with a minimal number of surfaces. The reason for this is to reduce various aberrations that would be produced by spherical surfaces.
However, in a decentered optical system, rotationally asymmetric aberrations due to decentration cannot be corrected by a rotationally symmetric optical system. Rotationally asymmetric aberrations due to decentration include distortion, curvature of field, and astigmatic and comatic aberrations, which occur even on the axis.
First, rotationally asymmetric curvature of field will be described. For example, when rays from an infinitely distant object point are incident on a decentered concave mirror, the rays are reflected by the concave mirror to form an image. In this case, the back focal length from that portion of the concave mirror on which the rays strike to the image surface is a half the radius of curvature of the portion on which the rays strike in a case where the medium on the image side is air. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 16, an image surface tilted with respect to the axial principal ray is formed. It is impossible to correct such rotationally asymmetric curvature of field by a rotationally symmetric optical system.
To correct the tilted curvature of field by the concave mirror M itself, which is the source of the curvature of field, the concave mirror M is formed from a rotationally asymmetric surface, and, in this example, the concave mirror M is arranged such that the curvature is made strong (refracting power is increased) in the positive direction of the Y-axis, whereas the curvature is made weak (refracting power is reduced) in the negative direction of the Y-axis. By doing so, the tilted curvature of field can be corrected. It is also possible to obtain a flat image surface with a minimal number of constituent surfaces by placing a rotationally asymmetric surface having the same effect as that of the above-described arrangement in the optical system separately from the concave mirror M.
It is preferable that the rotationally asymmetric surface should be a rotationally asymmetric surface having no axis of rotational symmetry in the surface nor out of the surface. If the rotationally asymmetric surface has no axis of rotational symmetry in the surface nor out of the surface, the degree of freedom increases, and this is favorable for aberration correction.
Next, rotationally asymmetric astigmatism will be described.
A decentered concave mirror M produces astigmatism even for axial rays, as shown in FIG. 17, as in the case of the above. The astigmatism can be corrected by appropriately changing the curvatures in the X- and Y-axis directions of the rotationally asymmetric surface as in the case of the above.
Rotationally asymmetric coma will be described below.
A decentered concave mirror M produces coma even for axial rays, as shown in FIG. 18, as in the case of the above. The coma can be corrected by changing the tilt of the rotationally asymmetric surface according as the distance from the origin of the X-axis increases, and further appropriately changing the tilt of the surface according to the sign (positive or negative) of the Y-axis.
The image-forming optical system according to the present invention may also be arranged such that at least one of the above-described surfaces having a reflecting action is decentered with respect to the axial principal ray and has a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration and further has a power. By adopting such an arrangement, decentration aberrations produced as the result of giving a power to the reflecting surface can be corrected by the surface itself. In addition, the power of the refracting surfaces of the prism is reduced, and thus chromatic aberration produced in the prism can be minimized.
The rotationally asymmetric surface used in the present invention should preferably be a plane-symmetry free-form surface having only one plane of symmetry. Free-form surfaces used in the present invention are defined by the following equation (a). It should be noted that the Z-axis of the defining equation is the axis of a free-form surface.                     Z        =                                            cr              2                        /                          [                              1                +                                                      {                                          1                      -                                                                        (                                                      1                            +                            k                                                    )                                                ⁢                                                  c                          2                                                ⁢                                                  r                          2                                                                                      }                                                              ]                                +                                    ∑                              j                =                2                            66                        ⁢                                          C                j                            ⁢                              X                m                            ⁢                              Y                n                                                                        (        a        )            
In Eq. (a), the first term is a spherical surface term, and the second term is a free-form surface term.
In the spherical surface term:
c: the curvature at the vertex
k: a conic constant
r={square root over ( )}(X2+Y2)
The free-form surface term is given by                                           ∑                          j              =              2                        66                    ⁢                                    C              j                        ⁢                          X              m                        ⁢                          Y              n                                      =                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              2                        ⁢            X                    +                                    C              3                        ⁢            Y                    +                                    C              4                        ⁢                          X              2                                +                                    C              5                        ⁢            XY                    +                                    C              6                        ⁢                          Y              2                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              7                        ⁢                          X              3                                +                                    C              8                        ⁢                          X              2                        ⁢            Y                    +                                    C              9                        ⁢                          XY              2                                +                                    C              10                        ⁢                          Y              3                                +                                    C              11                        ⁢                          X              4                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              12                        ⁢                          X              3                        ⁢            Y                    +                                    C              13                        ⁢                          X              2                        ⁢                          Y              2                                +                                    C              14                        ⁢                          XY              3                                +                                    C              15                        ⁢                          Y              4                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              16                        ⁢                          X              5                                +                                    C              17                        ⁢                          X              4                        ⁢            Y                    +                                    C              18                        ⁢                          X              3                        ⁢                          Y              2                                +                                    C              19                        ⁢                          X              2                        ⁢                          Y              3                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              20                        ⁢                          XY              4                                +                                    C              21                        ⁢                          Y              5                                +                                    C              22                        ⁢                          X              6                                +                                    C              23                        ⁢                          X              5                        ⁢            Y                    +                                    C              24                        ⁢                          X              4                        ⁢                          Y              2                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              25                        ⁢                          X              3                        ⁢                          Y              3                                +                                    C              26                        ⁢                          X              2                        ⁢                          Y              4                                +                                    C              27                        ⁢                          XY              5                                +                                    C              28                        ⁢                          Y              6                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              29                        ⁢                          X              7                                +                                    C              30                        ⁢                          X              6                        ⁢            Y                    +                                    C              31                        ⁢                          X              5                        ⁢                          Y              2                                +                                    C              32                        ⁢                          X              4                        ⁢                          Y              3                                +                                                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                                            C              33                        ⁢                          X              3                        ⁢                          Y              4                                +                                    C              34                        ⁢                          X              2                        ⁢                          Y              5                                +                                    C              35                        ⁢                          XY              6                                +                                    C              36                        ⁢                          Y              7                        ⁢                          xe2x80x83                        ⁢            …                              
where Cj (j is an integer of 2 or higher) are coefficients.
In general, the above-described free-form surface does not have planes of symmetry in both the XZ- and YZ-planes. In the present invention, however, a free-form surface having only one plane of symmetry parallel to the YZ-plane is obtained by making all terms with odd-numbered powers of X zero. For example, in the above defining equation (a), the coefficients of the terms C2, C5, C7, C9, C12, C14, C16, C18, C20, C23, C25, C27, C29, C31, C33, C35, . . . are set equal to zero. By doing so, it is possible to obtain a free-form surface having only one plane of symmetry parallel to the YZ-plane.
A free-form surface having only one plane of symmetry parallel to the XZ-plane is obtained by making all terms with odd-numbered powers of Y zero. For example, in the above defining equation (a), the coefficients of the terms C3, C5, C8, C10, C12, C14, C17, C19, C21, C23, C25, C27, C30, C32, C34, C36, . . . are set equal to zero. By doing so, it is possible to obtain a free-form surface having only one plane of symmetry parallel to the XZ-plane.
Furthermore, the direction of decentration is determined in correspondence to either of the directions of the above-described planes of symmetry. For example, with respect to the plane of symmetry parallel to the YZ-plane, the direction of decentration of the optical system is determined to be the Y-axis direction. With respect to the plane of symmetry parallel to the XZ-plane, the direction of decentration of the optical system is determined to be the X-axis direction. By doing so, rotationally asymmetric aberrations due to decentration can be corrected effectively, and at the same time, the productivity can be improved.
It should be noted that the above defining equation (a) is shown as merely an example, and that the feature of the present invention resides in that rotationally asymmetric aberrations due to decentration are corrected and, at the same time, the productivity is improved by using a rotationally asymmetric surface having only one plane of symmetry. Therefore, the same advantageous effect can be obtained for any other defining equation that expresses a rotationally asymmetric surface.
In a case where the relay optical system is formed from a prism that includes a first surface serving as an entrance surface and a second surface as an image source-side reflecting surface, as stated above, it is even more desirable to arrange the first surface in the form of a rotationally asymmetric curved surface configuration capable of assisting the correction of decentration aberrations produced by the second surface.
In a case where the relay optical system is formed from a decentered prism, it is desirable from the viewpoint of aberration correction that the prism should be arranged as follows. The prism is formed from at least three surfaces, which are a first surface, a second surface, and a third surface. The first surface is an entrance surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the prism medium. The second surface is a reflecting surface that reflects the light beam entering through the first surface. The third surface is a reflecting surface that reflects the light beam reflected by the second surface. Both the second and third surfaces are arranged in the form of a rotationally asymmetric curved surface configuration that gives an optical power to a light beam and corrects decentration aberrations.
The part of the viewing optical system that acts as an ocular optical system may be arranged such that a light beam from the image display device is passed through the semitransparent reflecting surface and then reflected by the concave reflecting surface, and the reflected light beam is reflected by the semitransparent reflecting surface. The ocular optical system part may also be arranged such that a light beam from the image display device is reflected by the semitransparent reflecting surface and then reflected by the concave reflecting surface, and the reflected light beam is passed through the semitransparent reflecting surface.
The concave reflecting surface in the ocular optical system part may be arranged in the form of a rotationally asymmetric curved surface configuration capable of correcting decentration aberrations produced in the entire viewing optical system. With this arrangement, aberration correction can be effected even more favorably.
In a case where the ocular optical system part is arranged such that a light beam from the image display device is reflected by the semitransparent reflecting surface and then reflected by the concave reflecting surface, and the reflected light beam is passed through the semitransparent reflecting surface, the concave reflecting surface may be formed from a surface having both reflecting and transmitting actions whereby a light from the image display device is reflected and, at the same time, light from the outside world is allowed to enter the ocular optical system part. With this arrangement, an image displayed on the image display device can be observed as an enlarged image, and the outside world can be observed selectively or superimposed on the displayed image.
In this case, it is desirable that the concave reflecting surface should be formed from a thin-walled member having two approximately parallel concave surfaces that face each other across a medium having a refractive index larger than 1 so as to correct aberrations produced when light from the outside world enters through the concave reflecting surface.
In this case, it is desirable that the thin-walled member, which forms the concave reflecting surface, should have a thickness in the range of from 0.1 millimeter to 6.0 millimeters. If the thickness is less than 0.1 millimeter, the thin-walled member becomes excessively thin. Consequently, the mass-productivity degrades, and the thin-walled member is likely to break when it is provided with half-mirror coating to realize a see-through function. If the thickness exceeds 6 millimeters, the thin-walled member becomes excessively thick, causing the weight to increase unfavorably.
In these cases, it is desirable to form the configurations of the two concave surfaces of the thin-walled member, which forms the concave reflecting surface, so that the amount of distortion introduced into a light beam passing through the concave reflecting surface is within 10% (desirably 5%) in a region extending radially from the center of the effective surface area of the concave surfaces to have a radius that is one third of the radius of the effective surface area. If the amount of distortion exceeds 10%, the observer is given an unfavorable impression when viewing the outside world. It is preferable to form the two concave surfaces of the thin-walled member so that the amount of distortion is within 5%. By doing so, the outside world can be observed even more beautifully.
The viewing optical system in the present invention may be arranged to have a first prism including at least the first surface and the second surface; the semitransparent reflecting surface placed separately from the first prism; and the concave reflecting surface placed separately from the first prism and the semitransparent reflecting surface.
The viewing optical system may be arranged to have a first prism including at least the first surface and the second surface, and a second prism having at least the semitransparent reflecting surface and the concave reflecting surface.
The viewing optical system may be formed from a prism including at least the first surface, the second surface, the semitransparent reflecting surface, and the concave reflecting surface.
It is desirable that the semitransparent reflecting surface should have a plane surface configuration. The semitransparent reflecting surface may have a curved surface configuration, as a matter of course.
It is desirable that at least one rotationally asymmetric curved surface of the viewing optical system in the present invention should be a plane-symmetry free-form surface having only one plane of symmetry.
It is preferable from a practical point of view that the image display apparatus according to the present invention should have the viewing optical system and a support member capable of retaining the viewing optical system on the head of an observer to lead a light beam from the viewing optical system to an eyeball of the observer.
Incidentally, the relay optical system part may be formed from a decentered prism as shown in numerical examples (described later). That is, in Examples 1 to 3, the relay optical system part is formed from a decentered prism that is independent of the semitransparent reflecting surface and the concave reflecting surface. The decentered prism has a first surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the prism, a second surface that reflects the light beam entering through the first surface, and a third surface that reflects the light beam reflected from the second surface. The optical path connecting the first and second surfaces and the optical path reflected from the third surface intersect each other in the prism. In Example 4, the relay optical system part is formed from a single decentered prism that includes the semitransparent reflecting surface and the concave reflecting surface. By using such a decentered prism, the relay optical system part can be formed in a compact structure. In such a prism configuration, the entrance pupil is positioned in the prism. Therefore, aberration correction can be made favorably by distributing the powers of the prism surfaces approximately in symmetry with respect to the pupil position.
Let us define the power of a decentered optical system such as that used in the present invention and the power of an optical surface. As shown in FIG. 19, when the direction of decentration of a decentered optical system S is taken in the Y-axis direction, a light ray which is parallel to the axial principal ray of the decentered optical system S and which has a small height d in the YZ-plane is made to enter the decentered optical system S from the object side thereof (from the exit pupil side in the backward ray tracing in the case of the present invention). The angle that is formed between that ray and the axial principal ray exiting from the decentered optical system S when the two rays are projected onto the YZ-plane is denoted by xcex4y, and xcex4y/d is defined as the power Py in the Y-axis direction of the decentered optical system S. Similarly, a light ray which is parallel to the axial principal ray of the decentered optical system S and which has a small height d in the X-axis direction, which is perpendicular to the YZ-plane, is made to enter the decentered optical system S from the object side thereof. The angle that is formed between that ray and the axial principal ray exiting from the decentered optical system S when the two rays are projected onto a plane perpendicularly intersecting the YZ-plane and containing the axial principal ray is denoted by xcex4x, and xcex4x/d is defined as the power Px in the X-axis direction of the decentered optical system S. The power Pyn in the Y-axis direction and power Pxn in the X-axis direction of a decentered optical surface n constituting the decentered optical system S are defined in the same way as the above.
Furthermore, the reciprocals of the above-described powers are defined as the focal length Fy in the Y-axis direction of the decentered optical system S, the focal length Fx in the X-axis direction of the decentered optical system S, the focal length Fyn in the Y-axis direction of the decentered optical surface n, and the focal length Fxn in the X-axis direction of the decentered optical surface n, respectively.
As has been stated above, the relay optical system part of the image display apparatus according to the present invention may be formed from a decentered prism having a first surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the prism, a second surface that reflects the light beam entering through the first surface, and a third surface that reflects the light beam reflected from the second surface. The optical path connecting the first and second surfaces and the optical path reflected from the third surface intersect each other in the prism. In this case, the absolute value of the power in the X-axis direction of the entire optical system is denoted by Px, and the absolute value of the power in the Y-axis direction of the entire optical system is denoted by Py. The surfaces of the decentered prism are denoted by S1, S2, S3 and S4, respectively, from the image display device side [there is no surface S4 in a case where the relay optical system part is formed from a single decentered prism that includes the semitransparent reflecting surface and the concave reflecting surface (Example 4)]. In addition, the powers of the surfaces S1 to S4 at positions where an axial principal ray that passes through the center of the exit pupil and reaches the center of the display surface of the image display device intersects the surfaces S1 to S4 are denoted by PxS1, PyS1, PxS2, PyS2, PxS3, PyS3, PxS4, and PyS4, respectively.
It is important to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x922.0 less than PxS3/Px less than 3.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
xe2x88x922.5 less than PyS3/Py less than 3.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
These conditions specify the power of the surface S3 relative to the power of the entire optical system. If PxS3/Px or PyS3/Py is not larger than the lower limit, i.e. xe2x88x922.0 or xe2x88x922.5, the power of the surface S3 becomes negatively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface. If PxS3/Px or PyS3/Py is not smaller than the upper limit, i.e. 3.5, the power of the surface S3 becomes positively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface.
It is more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x920.5 less than PxS3/Px less than 2.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1-1)
xe2x88x921.5 less than PyS3/Py less than 2.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2-1)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (1-1) and (2-1) is the same as the above.
It is even more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
0.5 less than PxS3/Px less than 1.8xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1-2)
xe2x88x920.5 less than PyS3/Py less than 1.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2-2)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (1-2) and (2-2) is the same as the above.
It is important to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x922.0 less than PxS2/Px less than 3.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
xe2x88x921.5 less than PyS2/Py less than 4.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4)
These conditions specify the power of the surface S2 relative to the power of the entire optical system. If PxS2/Px or PyS2/Py is not larger than the lower limit, i.e. xe2x88x922.0 or xe2x88x921.5, the power of the surface S2 becomes negatively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface. If PxS2/Px or PyS2/Py is not smaller than the upper limit, i.e. 3.5 or 4.5, the power of the surface S2 becomes positively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface.
It is more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x921.0 less than PxS2/Px less than 2.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3-1)
xe2x88x920.5 less than PyS2/Py less than 3.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4-1)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (3-1) and (4-1) is the same as the above.
It is even more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
0.0 less than PxS2/Px less than 1.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3-2)
0.5 less than PyS2/Py less than 2.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4-2)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (3-2) and (4-2) is the same as the above.
As has been stated above, the relay optical system part of the image display apparatus according to the present invention may be formed from a decentered prism that is independent of the semitransparent reflecting surface and the concave reflecting surface (see Examples 1 to 3). The decentered prism has a first surface through which a light beam emitted from the image display device enters the prism, a second surface that reflects the light beam entering through the first surface, and a third surface that reflects the light beam reflected from the second surface. The optical path connecting the first and second surfaces and the optical path reflected from the third surface intersect each other in the prism. In this case, it is important to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x921.5 less than PxS3/PxHP less than 3.0xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(5)
xe2x88x923.0 less than PyS3/PyHP less than 2.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(6)
where PxHP is the power in the X-axis direction of the decentered prism, and PyHP is the power in the Y-axis direction of the decentered prism.
These conditions specify the power of the surface S3 relative to the power of the decentered prism on the image display device side. If PxS3/PxHP or PyS3/PyHP is not larger than the lower limit, i.e. xe2x88x921.5 or xe2x88x923.0, the power of the surface S3 becomes negatively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface. If PxS3/PxHP or PyS3/PyHP is not smaller than the upper limit, i.e. 3.0 or 2.5, the power of the surface S3 becomes positively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface.
It is more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x920.5 less than PxS3/PxHP less than 2.0xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(5-1)
xe2x88x922.0 less than PyS3/PyHP less than 1.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(6-1)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (5-1) and (6-1) is the same as the above.
It is even more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
0.5 less than PxS3/PxHP less than 1.0xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(5-2)
xe2x88x921.0 less than PyS3/PyHP less than 0.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(6-2)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (5-2) and (6-2) is the same as the above.
It is important to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x922.0 less than PxS2/PxHP less than 2.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7)
xe2x88x922.0 less than PyS2/PyHP less than 4.0xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(8)
These conditions specify the power of the surface S2 relative to the power of the decentered prism on the image display device side. If PxS2/PxHP or PyS2/PyHP is not larger than the lower limit, i.e. xe2x88x922.0, the power of the surface S2 becomes negatively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface. If PxS2/PxHP or PyS2/PyHP is not smaller than the upper limit, i.e. 2.5 or 4.0, the power of the surface S2 becomes positively strong excessively, and decentration aberrations produced by this surface become impossible to correct by another surface.
It is more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
xe2x88x921.0 less than PxS2/PxHP less than 1.5xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7-1)
xe2x88x921.0 less than PyS2/PyHP less than 3.0xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(8-1)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (7-1) and (8-1) is the same as the above.
It is even more desirable to satisfy either of the following conditions:
0.0 less than PxS2/PxHP less than 0.8xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7-2)
0.0 less than PyS2/PyHP less than 2.0xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(8-2)
The meaning of the upper and lower limits of each of the conditions (7-2) and (8-2) is the same as the above.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.